Monday, January 24, 2011

The lull of holidays is over. It is a busy time of year: I've been hurtling snow and ice, getting ready for AWP, new semester, new classes, new Indiana Review interns. Luckily today, a treat for you, a poetry reprieve. This edition of the bluecast brings you Weston Cutter reading his poem "Winter Prayer"

Marie Howe’s debut volume, The Good Thief, was selected by Margaret Atwood as winner of the 1987 Open Competition of the National Poetry Series, published in 1988 by Persea Books. Since then, she has published two more collections, What the Living Do (W. W. Norton, 1998) and The Kingdom of the Ordinary (2008). Her awards include a fellowship at the Bunting Institute, as well as a Guggenheim Fellowship and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship. She has served on the faculty of several schools, including Tufts University and Dartmouth College. She currently teaches at Sarah Lawrence, New York University, and Columbia University in New York City, where she lives with her daughter.

Friday, January 21, 2011

Occasionally there are times for those of us who fear the thought of lineation, scansion, iambic-pentameter, and all things poetry to give the other genre of creative writing its due. With poets like Aimee Nezhukumatathil this isn’t difficult. A frequent contributor of Indiana Review and the judge for last year’s 2010 Indiana Review poetry prize, her poems in issue 31.1 are lyrical and haunting, much of what I expect from her third collection, Lucky Fish, published by Tupelo Press. I'm sure it will be a great addition to your library if you're looking to start the year off right by adding a new collection.

Friday, January 14, 2011

The 2010 Fiction Prize: an incredible amount of submissions and some truly phenomenal writing.

Our joyful congratulations to Lones Seiber of Morristown, TN! His winning story, "Icarus," engaged both us and especially our esteemed judge, Dan Chaon, who had this to say about the piece: "Icarus has an impressive historical sweep, gliding convincingly and smoothly over large swaths of time. At the same time, it's incredibly visceral and full of vivid imagery and shocking moments. Its portrait of people at the margins is bracingly bleak and emotionally intense, and deeply empathetic in a way that I found quite moving."

Congratulations also to our runner-up, Brad McLelland of Stillwater, OK, for his story, "The Beggars"!

And thank you, thank you, thank you, entrants and readers, for making this possible. Look out for our upcoming 2011 Poetry Prize!

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

It was about a year ago this time we found out about the sad and terrible news of our friend and colleague's death. To honor Don Belton's memory and vibrant spirit we have dedicated a page to the story that Indiana Review published in issue 12.1. Here is a link to the story, "The Pentecostal Bridegroom."